Scope basics: Part 2

Parallax
Parallax is an optical term describing how the point of view affects what the viewer sees. The driver of a car may see his speedometer needle at 60 m.p.h, while a passenger to his right may see it hovering just above 57 m.p.h. In the UK, the passenger is on the driver’s left and the speedo needle will appear to be over the 63 mp.h. mark. The needle hasn’t moved in either case, but the observer’s viewpoint has moved.

And so it is with a scope. You look through it and see the crosshairs exactly in the center of the bullseye; but if you move your head on the stock, the crosshairs will also appear to move slightly. So, where you hold your head relative to the scope determines where the scope appears to be “looking.”

Many scopes today have a parallax adjustment. Some scope manufacturers call this an adjustable objective, or simply AO; but that just stems from the fact that it is the objective bell that’s turned to correct for parallax. On other scopes, this adjustment is a knob on the left side of the adjustment turret.

The adjustable objective is an objective bell that turns to remove as much parallax as possible. The scale on the bell indicates the yards to the target that have been focused.

On scopes with a sidewheel parallax adjustment, a knob on the left side of the turret adjusts for parallax. This is much easier to reach than the objective bell when holding a rifle.

The parallax adjustment adjusts the scope lenses so the least amount of parallax exists at that distance (the distance to the target). To the shooter, it looks like the scope is focusing on the target. But here’s the important point: No amount of parallax correction is ever enough. There will always be some parallax in the scope, no matter how well it’s been adjusted. Where you hold your head on the stock is very important, whether or not your scope has a parallax adjustment.

Range of scope adjustability
Every modern scope comes with vertical and horizontal adjustments, so the crosshairs may be adjusted to the point of pellet impact. Open sights often have these same adjustments. But there’s one big difference between an open sight’s adjustments and those of a scope. As an open sight is adjusted, the sight is moved mechanically. Usually just the rear sight moves, but sometimes the front sight moves, as well.

When a modern scope is adjusted, you cannot detect any movement. It’s inside the scope but can’t be seen from the outside.

What gets moved isn’t the scope tube, but a smaller tube inside the outer tube. This inner tube is called the erector tube, and it contains the reticle and other things. The wires or lines of most reticles do not move when adjustments are made. Instead, the entire erector tube moves, carrying the reticle lines with it. Since the lines are fixed, they always appear to be centered when you look through the scope.

There are some scopes that do have moving reticle lines. These are older technology scopes and are often from Germany or Russia. But these are so infrequently encountered on the modern market that they aren’t worth discussing.

I’ve mentioned the term modern in relation to the scope of today. Fifty years ago, there were scopes that did not contain erector tubes. Instead, these scopes were adjusted from the outside, so their entire tubes moved whenever adjustment were made. The adjustments were in the scope rings.

This vintage Unertl scope is held in spring-loaded rings that adjust the whole scope like the erector tube in a modern scope. The spring is inside the button at the 4 o’clock position and works for both the vertical and horizontal adjustments.

The section of the modern scope that contains the adjustment knobs is called the turret.

By looking at vintage adjustable scope rings, we can see how the erector tubes inside modern scopes move when they’re adjusted. And this is what is important. The adjustments work against a coiled steel return spring that pushes the scope back when the adjustment screws are backed off.

When the scope is adjusted higher or to the right, the erector tube springs expand and lose their tension. At some point, which differs from scope to scope, these springs relax. That’s when the scope no longer holds a zero and won’t adjust in that direction anymore.

This scope’s elevation knob is adjusted as high as it will go. The erector tube spring is fully relaxed, and the scope will be free to shift. It would be better not to adjust this scope above the horizontal No. 3 line.

Quality scopes have more adjustment range than cheaper scopes, but all scopes have difficulty adjusting out to their upper and right limits. As a general rule, I tell shooters they should never adjust beyond the three-quarter point in the high or right directions.

People sometimes ask if there’s a problem when adjusting the other way (down or to the left), and I tell them there isn’t. All you do when you adjust all the way down or to the left is compress a coil spring until it’s coil-bound. That doesn’t damage the scope, nor does it affect accuracy in any way.

Scope sights are wonderful tools that can enhance your shooting experience. They’re not magic, however. They operate by rules, just like anything else. Learn how they work, and they’ll do their part to make your shooting more successful.

TT
Yep. I do that with my side wheel parallax scopes. That is another reason why I like big side wheel scopes.
I will do what you said above in your link, but I use my laser range finder to compare the yardage then write it on the scope.

With a scope that is as low powered as the one in the pic, It is not going to be worth much for range finding at normal shooting ranges.
I often just preset the scope for something close to the distance I expect to shoot. If I need some very close distance measurement because of the trajectory, I use a pocket laser . A distance error can be much worse because of trajectory than it is of the AO focus parallax problem.

Some scopes have quite a bit of error in the marked AO settings . Until you check them out, you don’t know if it’s really worth the trouble of re-marking them.

TT
When I shoot at home most of my shooting is usually about 70 yards out at the most. And most of the shots average out to be at around 30 to 50 yards.
I know it sounds weird but I zero my scope at 50 yards. Then I will check what hold over or under I need at different distances.

Sometimes I make a cheat sheet and put it on the lens cover. But usually when I find the right pellet and do the above I don’t even need the cheat sheet anymore. That’s why you got to shoot and learn your gun.

Makes a lot of difference where you shoot. If you are familiar enough with the location, then it’s not too hard to guess about right….as long as you have some good reference points to go by.
I have trouble plinking rocks and weeds on open , bare fields. Nothing is standard size, and there are no known distance objects. Then there is the woods…without ranging a few trees, you don’t have much idea how far you are shooting.
Sometimes I laser different objects AFTER I guess the distance. Talk about being wrong by a whole lot !

Here’s the logic of this adjustment procedure. The FRONT (objective) lens focuses the target image onto the crosshair reticle. When the crosshairs and the target image are congruent (ie. exactly coinciding with superimposed), parallax is non-existent. The REAR (eyepiece) is then used to focus both the target image and the crosshairs so that they are very readable. Once you have determined your REAR (eyepiece) adjustment, you should lock it down. On some scopes that have no lock, mark the scope tube with a strip of tape where the eyepiece index lines up and tape the ocular in place.

Beware of the amateur shooter that has borrowed your rifle and ignorantly readjusts the eyepiece to suit his vision. Be sure that you do this adjustment using your shooting eye and glasses (If you wear them).
Knowledgeable shooters in the forums suggest that parallax should be adjusted at the average shooting range (ie. 30 yards). Other references point out that the parallax problem in scopes is exacerbated at short ranges. The A-Team recommends using ten or eleven.yards range for this procedure I tend to go along with the A-Team’s recommendations.

Here’s a FRONT focusing hint for when you are on the shooting range. After you have focused the FRONT on your target, do a mini-headbob test. If there is a movement of the crosshairs then you aren’t exactly focused.

Hint- You might have noticed that ‘focus’ when turning the FRONT clockwise is not quite the same as when turning the FRONT counter-clockwise. Always turn the FRONT in the same direction in order to minimize mechanical hysteresis.

By ‘FRONT’, I mean the objective lens and ‘REAR’ is the ocular (eyepiece) lens. I find it easier to use the terms FRONT and REAR.

The ‘head bob’ means moving your eye up or down and observing if the center of the crosshairs moves with respect to the target. Some people report that a ‘head sway’ (side to side) test gives different results with their scope than a ‘head bob’ test. Try doing both.
Your eye will slightly adjust for out of focus conditions. This is bad when you’re trying to adjust optics for focus. So take frequent rest periods and take the readings immediately after you peer through the scope.
If the best that you can do in the ‘head bob’ test is one quarter inch, then you are enlarging your best shooting groups by one quarter inch. The center point must be nailed in the center when you are head bobing or swaying.

Procedure 1 (a test procedure) :

Step 1 Set the scope at the highest magnification and 11 yards (10m) from a gridded target (graph paper) If the scope minimum adjustment is 10m then use 12m for the test distance. I used a billing statement with fine print as my target.
An article in addictive airguns magazine said that the effect of parallax error is increased at short ranges. But some knowledgeable shooters in the yellow forum recommend that that you do your adjustments at a typical shooting ranges. Your choice.
Step 2 Adjust the FRONT for target focus
Step 3a Do the ‘head bop’ test
Step 3b If the crosshairs DO NOT move on the target, then go to Procedure 2 Step 1, otherwise go to Procedure 1A
——-
Procedure 1A (an adjustment procedure) :

Step 4a Adjust the FRONT a bit (the target and crosshairs may not be in focus)
Step 4b Do the ‘head bob’ test
Step 4c If the cross hairs DO move on the target then go to procedure 1A Step 4a
Step 4d If the crosshairs DO NOT move on the target then, without changing the FRONT, adjust the EYEPIECE so the target is in focus
——–
Procedure 1B (a test procedure) :

Step 5a Adjust the FRONT to infinity, and then back until the target is focused
Step 5b Do the ‘head bob’ test
Step 5c If the crosshairs DO NOT move on the target then go to Procedure 2 Step 1
Step 6 If the crosshairs DO move on the target then change the EYEPIECE setting a bit and then goto Procedure 1 Step 2
——-
Procedure 2 (a calibration procedure) :

Step 1 Circumscribe (wrap around) the FRONT with a paper tape and mark the minimum/maximum end points when the front lens is rotated to its stops.
Step 2 Set the scope to its highest magnification and lockdown the eyepiece
Step 3 Place the target at 20 yards and focus the FRONT, then mark the paper tape in line with the factory scope center section index mark
Step 4 Move the target to a new distance and repeat Procedure 2 Step 3
Step 5 Weather protect your new paper calibration tape with transparent tape, or create a vinyl recalibration tape using the paper tape as a model (remember that I had you mark the end points for the FRONT lens.

Since it is Friday’s blog and about sporting optics I would like to offer some wisdom about using binoculars.I have found that some folks are not getting the most from their binoculars due to skipping this important simple procedure.
When you first pick up your binoculars (new or used) you first look through only the left side,using only your left eye.Pick something 25 to 50 yds away and use the center focus adjustment to adjust for a nice sharp image.Take your time and double check that it is exactly right.Then,without moving the focus adjustment change to the right eye & right side ONLY.This side is adjusted using the eyepiece ONLY while looking at the same exact point you focused the left side on.(this is called the diopter adjustment).Once you are sure the image is perfectly focused,now you can look through both eyes at once and adjust the hinge until the image you see becomes 3D.From here you only use the center focus to look at objects at different distances! This whole process takes less than a minuite but I have found many people that were unaware of it,and had great optics that they didn’t know were great!
If you ever look at used binoculars and after adjustment they were not able to produce a sharp 3D image pass them up because they are out of alignment and the process to repair them is very costly.FWIW…..Frank B

FrankBpc
What you should be saying is adjust the binocular for your weaker eye first then adjust the settings for the dominant eye there are people out there who are left eye dominant. I have come across shooter who are right handed and left eye dominant vice versa.

Nearly all of the binoculars out there have a +/- diopter adjustment on the right eyepiece.Can you tell me how this won’t work depending on which eye is dominant?? If you do the right eye first what is gained??

Frank B
Me and binoculars don’t get along to good. We don’t seem to see eye to eye and….. ok I will stop messing around.
It is hard for me to get them set correct. And I do wear glasses also.

But I remember when I was a kid and my dads brother came over and he was showing my dad his new binoculars. He let me look through them and I was looking at the neighbors barn which now I know is about 3/4 of a mile away.

But the 3D effect your talking about was definitely there. It looked like I could reach out and touch the bail of hay in the hay loft.

Gunfun,got jokes,huh?! Yeah,some binos aren’t worth squat…..but when they’re right,they seem like super powers.I must confess I am an optics junkie.The upside to that is I own some good stuff.The downside is the clutter.I too wear glasses (for distance) but I use binoculars without them.I have no less than a dozen pairs I could not pass up at flea mkts.There are tons of mid 20th century ones out there that came from Japanese optics houses under all different brands from Sears to Tasco to TraQs
etc….and if you follow the adjustment procedure I outlined above you can assess them in under a minuite.For less than 20 bucks ther’re FAR from a major investment……vendors virtually never know anything about them so they drastically undervalue them IMHO.Here is another tip:never buy the new junk you see at drugstores no matter how pretty the lens coatings look! The eyepieces on those are on a plastic yoke that flexes at the slightest touch……how in the world are they supposed to focus accurately?? Another bargain in my estimation is the handheld lighted microscopes from RadioShack.I have several of them from 30X to 60-100X and again they run less than 20$….for something that allows you to examine a single fingerprint ridge in great detail.A splinter looks like you’ve been impailed by a 2×4! LOL

TT,if you want,you are welcome to have one of mine……I can only use one at a time! If not,Radioshack also carries a neat 10X magnifier in a black brass frame that folds up.It’s about 1.5″ square so it’s pocket friendly and the frame base is like a picture frame with a hashmark scale.I believe it was designed for inspecting linen to determine threadcount but the applications are endless.I have even used it in the sun to start a fire and to woodburn designs! Email me if you would like a microscope.

Have you tried the full sheet, 8.5″x11″ Fresnel magnifier from someplace like Office Depot? They still scratch easily, but man! Talk about some ant burning power!! If you’ve got sun, you’ve got fire! Usually get a couple of credit card sized ones included in the package too and while they aren’t the greatest, at least it’s handy to see a menu…

Those should be pretty darned good! A pair of 50mm objectives should give a really bright image even at 16X……and 16X should really bring you right to the “action”.Please have a go at the procedure I outlined.Try it without your glasses first.If it works that way it will make for very comfortable viewing.If not,then try again with the glasses on.Let me know how it goes…..worst case I’ll trade ya something airgun related for your crappy binos….LOL

I managed to score a Bausch & Lomb 15x60x60mm zoom telescope by Bushnell that is crazy good like your 10x50s…..for 80$ I’m going to mount it to my best tripod (Focal from Japan) and check out the ol’ man in the moon tonight.Can’t wait! I wish I could mount up my digital camera to it.

Moon gonna come up pretty late . My gps and the web say so. Look at moon rise times. Not staying up that late. Have looked through a telescope that had a bit too much magnification. That bugger looks pretty rough.

Frank
I bought them for squirrel hunting. Figured they would be good in the shade of the woods with the 50 mm lens and wide field of view.
I’m going to try them tomorrow in the back yard where I have some good light. And I will definitely use the procedure you said.
Maybe that’s been my whole problem all along. I just went right into the woods and tryed using them and didn’t take the time to set them up first like your talking about.

Most articles I’ve read suggest that even 10X is pushing it for /hand-held/ binoculars. Anything higher should have a tripod adapter and be mounted on a support.

I have a set of Orion 7x50s — though at my age, my own pupils don’t open enough to use the full output from the binoculars (7×50 have a 7mm exit pupil, but if one’s eyes are only opening to 5mm, two millimeters is being cut off by the eye itself… 7×35 have a 5mm exit, and would appear just as bright to old eyes).

My biggest problem is that my prescription includes 6 diopter prisms (12 diopter total between left and right eye). Makes it difficult to get binoculars to align properly. {I also can’t work GAF Viewmasters, or photo stereo-pairs well}

I don’t have a problem holding it steady. I have a problem getting the right eye to focus and when I start moving the 2 eye pieces farther a part I run out of focus adjustment with the center adjustment.

B.B.
How about a part 3? How to use mil dots for windage and elevation. My scope is zeroed at 20yds and at 10yds I have to elevate by 1 mil dot to achieve the same point of impact. Can’t say what happens beyond 20yds (the limit of my home range).
Perhaps you can give us an idea how to compensate at say 30, 40 & 50yds.

Scopes are made in different parts of the world by the many manufacturers who have different scales of units remember eg made in the US and UK what you need is to know the results that you get from your rifle and scope with the best performing pellets. Then you can start at 10yds , 20yds and so forth. Basically knowing the trajectory of the pellet path during flight to the point of aim this requires lots of practice and experimentation. I prefer to choose the best pellet for my rifles using iron sights up to twenty yards this way I am able to know how the rifle is shooting without having to consume to much time trying to figure what might the problem be if I shoot poorly. I believe what BB is doing is explaining how scopes work and how to get started if that is understood problems encountered with scopes will be easily resolved because the average shooter would be aware of scopes fundamentals. What some dealers do is sell scopes to unwitting buyers who expect that it would solve all their problems with accuracy never telling them that he rifle is full of droop or worse the scope is not rated for springer’s. So new air gunners out there who reading this series take time to learn your rifle first the pellets it likes at different distances and conditions then consider a scope that will work properly in the situation that you will be shooting to achieve the fullest potential. Remember the most expensive scope can not make a bad rifle good

pete
I’m with you on this. I have been waiting for a how to use mil dots blog.

I also use the mil dots to range and tell the size of a object.
I use 10x magnification when I range something with the mil dots. And as I said above I use a laser range finder and mark my side wheel parallax adjustment for reference also.

Again it is a range estimation. But when you know what one mil dot to the next mil dot represents in inches you can determine a lot of things. Also you can then count your clicks of adjustment for your windage and elevation and see if they compare to the mil dot from one to the next.

Then you have a idea about how much one click of windage and elevation represents with your gun.

Hopefully there will be a blog about this. I remember when my Dad was teaching me this. Can be a bit confusing with it hitting you all at once.

BB can tell you what the mil dots represent but to do so he will have to test your scope. What I am trying to say is that the Units used for measurements are different around the world. So BB can only tell you how to go about achieving estimation with today’s scopes as to tell you what the estimation off the mil dots on your scopes represent that will be unlikely. Look at it this way for elevation 4 clicks on one scope gives you 2mm of adjustment on the target on another scope to get the same 2mm you would require 6 clicks. Remember also that each scope has its personality just like rifles this personality is influenced by many things such as batch length of time in use and the care from the owner. So this series will show you how to go about in getting your estimation not what your estimation will be for the mil dots or clicks in elevation, windage and AO will be. In Short you have a lot of shooting to do understand your gun scope and pellet behavior.

trinair
Yep I know what you are talking about.
At 10x with your parallax set at 100 yards. One mil dot to the next should represent 3.6″.
And then it depends on the turret what amount one click should represent. Like some scopes are 1/4″ MOA at 100 yrds parallax. One click should represent 1/4″ movement of POI at a hundred yards.

So how many clicks should it take with the scope I described to move 1 mil dot? If you want to do it in metric just multiply 3.6″ by 25.4 and you can convert it that way.

And if you do it enough you start to recognize how many mil-dots tall or wide something is. The closer that same 18″ crow is the more mil-dots it will take up, and the farther away it is the less mil-dots it will take up.

Try putting a gallon milk container at different distances and see how many mil dots it takes up at each distance. You will be surprised how quick the eyes and brain start to recognize the size related to distance.

Mil-dots represent, as I recall, one milli-radian of arc, at a given magnification — most scopes specify setting to 10X to get the spacing correct. Without using my calculator, one radian is ~57 degrees. So a milliradian would be (deci=>5.7, centi=>0.57, milli=>)0.057 degrees… * 60 gives 3.42 minutes of arc. (Using the extended real value of a radian will probably come out closer to the 3.6 figure given earlier)

But ranging using mil-dots requires knowing the size of the target as you are working out the common triangle equation:

*
|
|———————->
|
*

(extend the > to the top/bottom of the |s) {The angle between the * and > being that milliradian, the ———– being the unknown distance, and the *|* spacing is the known target.

Wulfraed
So tell me what happens when you look through your scope that is set at 10 power and the parallax is focused at 50 yrds. at a target. And the target falls between 1 mil dot to the next.

Math is math. If 1 mil dot to the next mil dot represents 1.88″ at 50 yrds.(which it does if you do the math; you said it your self that it equals 3.6″ @ 100 yrds.; you have to devide 3.6 by 2 which equals 1.88″) that object (will be) approximately 1.88″ tall.

When you range something it will usually be rounded up. So if I have my scope focused at a object 50 yards away. That means the parallax is set at 50 yrds. And I look at a object and it falls between 1 mil dot to the next it will be 1.88″ tall or to make it simple I would round up to 2″.

So yes you can tell how tall or wide something is by looking at the mil dots.

Get a object that you measure and know the height of (lets say 2″).
Put it out 50 yrds. that you measured and know for sure that it is correct.
Focus your scope on the object and it will fall between 1 mil dot to the next.
Which now looking through the scope I identified the object to be in between 1 mil dot to the next that it was about 2″ tall.

You are working with a pre-determined distance (determined via the parallax adjustment).

Ranging with mil-dots though is based on only knowing the target is typically some height (say 8 inches for a fox squirrel?). If the squirrel is spanning 5 dots — or 1.6″ per dot, it is probably 44 yards out (100 * 1.6/3.6). No parallax dialing needed.

I’ve got an old (pre mil-dot) Leatherwod scope for my HK-91. The scope reticle has markings and scales for things like 6, 12, 18, 72″

Once the cams have been set for the projectile ballistics and locked to the zoom ring, one adjusts the zoom until the subject size matches the appropriate marker. That act also rotates a spiral cam that lifts the rear of the scope to adjust for distance (no hold-over, no cranking elevation knob).

However, it does mean you can not use an ad hoc zoom factor. Okay when your “effective POI” is a hunting size circle (4 inches say), since the scope will probably be at 3X for a 200 yard target, and at 9X for the /same/ target at 600 yards.

Wulfread
I know what your saying. But what I’m saying in the above example is that I’m not worried about ranging the object.
Like you said I’m using the focus of the scope parallax to estimate my range.
(remember I keep saying estimate)
I have marks on my side wheel that I marked by using my Bushnell yardage 450 laser range finder at given known distances from 10 yrds to 100 yrds. So if I focus my scope at a given distance I can look at the object through the scope and see how many mil dots the object takes up. If it compares to the chart I made then I know that my scope focus (parallax) was true. Knowing that I can make a better shot.

B.B., thank you for this blog. It seems there is always more to know about any given subject; scopes in this case. I have looked at previous printed and video material, but I found new information in these two days. ~Ken

Here’s another trick that helps direct from the U.S. army basic training. Build muscle memory. Take the gun you intend to use most. This trick is best if you use just that one gun all the time. While you are doing something mindless like watching tv you can do this. With the gun unloaded and safe Bring the gun up to your cheek and build a god sight picture using your tv for the target. When you have the proper sight picture (be sure you are holding your gun exactly as if you were really going to be taking the shot) squeeze off a pretend shot, then bring the gun off your shoulder. Bring it back up to that same position again with the same sight picture and squeeze the shot again. Keep doing this over and over. Eventually when you are out hunting or at the range you’ll build that same sight picture again and again without thinking about it. If the sight picture is off by too much you will know it and you’ll stop and correct it because something won’t feel right.

One other trick takes a partner. Get in position to take a shot with your gun unloaded and safe. Make sure you have a proper trigger hold, meaning just the tip of your trigger finger is on the trigger. Have your buddy put a washer or a coin on your muzzle. Practice squeezing that trigger without the coin or washer falling off the muzzle. Repeat these exercises as much as you can. The more you do them the better your muscle memory will get and you’ll go right into a proper hold and sight picture every single time without thinking of it. This will greatly improve your shooting skills.

When you are actually shooting your target will tell you quite a bit. When you are seeing your shots being off left to right that is improper trigger control. So you know you need to work on that at home. If the shots are going up and down that is breathing. You need to watch breathing control. Take a deep breath before you fire. let it all out and hold it. Then take the shot when everything feels right.

This is the very best advice I can give you. Since I have competed in some of the most exclusive invite only competitions, and with my never missed once on the army qualification range record, and my marksman ship got me invited to one of the best military schools when I was in, it’s good advice. So take it or leave it. If you take it, practice it as much as you can and safety first. Be sure the gun is unloaded. We do not want any accidents.

It’s one of the first things we did with our M-16 before we ever took our first shot. We’d sit outside our barracks with our M-16’s practicing field stripping them, putting them back together and drilling building muscle memory. Since it was summer in Alabama basic training to me was like a really fun summer camp. I didn’t even mind the drill instructors all that much being in my face. I thought of it all as part of the game. Keep in mind this was in 1987. I understand that drill instructors have changed quite a bit from the strict things they used to be. I hear that now they are more like teachers explaining things instead of running you through things like they used to do. I’m not sure how I feel about the new way of doing things. The ones our drill instructors found were fastest at field stripping and reassembling they had a bit of fun with and had us doing it blindfolded. I can still do that and I do keep in practice. Another trick they tought us was saying our driver licences and social security numbers without looking at them then repeat them backwards. Of course I resented the guys that came from states with short driver license numbers since we did all this while doing push ups. In all I always think of basic training as one of the best parts of my military career. 8 weeks seemed to go too fast.

That coin exercise brings back memories about the early days in my unit coins and logs the coin falls the whole unit work with logs until the the coin stays on the muzzle those were some long days when yours stays some on else coin falls.

We never did the log thing. We’d just put the coin back up and try again. The coin was going to drop after each shot since we had to charge the gun again so the hammer would hit the firing pin. So it was fire, keep the coin from falling, and then reset again. Pulling back the charging handle always caused the coin to fall. (that is for everybody that has never gone to basic training.)

It can be done. Doing so while doing push ups in basic training is quite a motivator. It has no real value but they had to keep things turned up and keep us working on stuff. They need to keep your mind working as long as they can so you retain more of the stuff you need to do so they teach you a few of what I call “bar tricks”. Now that I’m older and I admit I have gotten a bit lazy I likely wouldn’t bother with learning these things. When we are younger they need to keep you on your toes so later you are better equipped for the high stress of combat. But the tricks and things you learn stay with you the rest of your life even if it is just in the stories of our lives. I personally think my military time added quite a bit of flavor to what would have been an otherwise “too boring for a reality show” life.

John
I think that’s great that you had the opportunity to be in the services.
Two of my buddies were in the service back in the 80’s. One was in the Army and the other in the Air Force. The one that was in the Army doesn’t like to talk about it. And the one that was in the Air Force was a fighter plane mechanic. Hes got some interesting storeys but nothing really about guns or combat.

So other than what stories I hear from people willing to talk about their experiences when they were in the military. I have only heard a few stories.
My Dad was in the Korean war. Was lucky that he told me stories.
I don’t think I could of put up with the rules and regulations if you know what I mean.
But ain’t it funny through out time you learn there are way to many rules and regulations that you have to put up with.

Actually all the rules and regulations aren’t that bad. After a while they just become a fact of life and you just do what you are supposed to do. Yes it’s a highly structured life but not unbearable. What is hard is leaving the military and all of a sudden you no longer have that structure. You no longer have a place where you neatly fit in life. All of a sudden everything that defined your life for how ever many years is just gone. That is the hard part. You just feel lost. Depression sets in and you feel like something is missing. Some people actually commit suicide because they feel so lost.

You can tell who was military and who was not after a while. They are different in how they talk, how they walk, how they look. And they can spot each other in a crowd. I still to this day have some military mannerisms that have gone away. To this day I even still hunt like I am military. I still can camouflage myself to the point you can be standing there inches from me and never see me. I can even pass feet from my own mom in the store and she doesn’t see me. I’ve done it before. I figure out how my current enemy (muskrat, groundhog) operate and figure out how to take him out much like I did in the military. Even when I play a video game (far cry 3) I run the game like it is a military operation. I like far cry 3 for the fact all my tactics actually get me results. I like the practice.

John
I heard people say that.
My buddy that was the Air Force mechanic had a few jobs. Then he ended up getting a job with the police department because it was the closest thing to the structured military life that he knew for so long.
But he always tells me it just still ain’t the same.
But I still see his eyes light up when he gets a chance to shoot a military gun.

I think that is part of the reason the military styled airguns are so popular and why people love the AR15 so much (everybody except the liberals that is.) Most of the former military vets want to shoot what we are used to. I personally like my AK47’s but I finally broke down and am building an AR15 that is similar to my M-16/M-4 that I carried in the military for sentimental reasons. And yes, building your own gun is perfectly legal. The catch is I can never ever sell it or give it away.

TT
We use to fly R/C planes together. That’s how I met him. He don’t live in the area anymore and that was back in the late 80’s early 90’s that I was flying the planes with him It was in the mid 90’s if I remember right he moved to a different area and he called me and said he started working at the police department in his town.
The only thing I remember is he talked about working on F15’s and I believe he called his job (High performance fighter mechanic).

It’s the same thing with people who work on cruise ships.
I’ve two good friends who went to school with my wife and me in restauration and they got jobs on cruise ships. They tried getting out after 8 and 11 years respectively but after a few months they went back. They didn’t know how to take care of themselves. They forgot to pay the bills, clean, do their taxes, save some money for groceries and bills and rent etc.
When you’re on the boat all you have to do is work-party-sleep so that’s all they do and when you’ ve been doing it long enough and you have no contact with people who have another lifestyle you forget how things are done and changing your whole lifestyle is hard.

Gunfun1…They are like the ferarri of the gun world. No huge recoil. The gun absorbs most of it. Depends on what you have they are accurate as long as you put in the time to build that muscle memory, and despite what Joe Biden says very easy to use. I’m liking the fact that after my AR15 is built I can change calibers by simply swapping upper receivers. 5.56 NATO isn’t legal in many states for deer hunting but .308 which is 7.62 is perfectly fine as is 6.5 Grendel, 300aac blackout, and even the .50 cal Beowulf which can stop any land animal in it’s tracks.

There is the rub. If you get a powder burner you are going to be throwing down some bucks for ammo, especially if you want to shoot as much as you do your air rifles. I see umarex has a fairly decent looking plastic gun called steel force that would give you the approximate feel of an ar15. I had my eyes on it but I decided if I was going to do it I’d do it right so I’m building my own. Mine is all state of the art with my lower being a kevlar reinforced polymer.

It might be a good idea to find a place where you can rent an ar15 along with some range time in order to try it before you buy it. That’s one cheap way to get your hands on one for a while. Another thing you can do is build your own. That’s what I’m doing so everything is exactly the way I want it. It’s not that hard really and you can find good instruction videos on you tube. I checked on that.

John
Its got to be mine if I’m shooting it. The renting thing would be cool to see how the gun is. But got to own it if I shoot it.

And the air soft stuff is cool. But no I have been wanting to get me a good center fire gun. And if I’m going to save up some money I have to make the right choice. Money seems to just blow away now days for some reason.
And I really want a TX200 but I can get that later on. So I need to start seeing what kind of tactical gun I want.
People say that Lupa round is good. I will have to see. Too many choices and not enough money.

And I don’t shoot the big guns like I shoot air guns. But If I could find reasonable priced ammo I would shoot the heck out of fire arms too.

I understand the need. Here’s another idea that might be fun. Go find your national guard recruiter. See if they still have weekends where they will let you tag along on a drill weekend. They give you a uniform and gear for the weekend and you go do what they do. When I did a tour in national guard we’d have a few guys along for it for the weekend from time to time. If they still do that I bet you’d have a ball.

As far as buying your own tactical, why not just buy a few pieces here and there and put your own together? That will save you a ton of money. That’s how I get mine. A few pieces at a time. You could have a nice custom ar in a few months. And it’s really not all that hard. It’s actually easier than an AK which requires a 12 ton hydraulic press to assemble and special jigs. An AR only needs an armorer’s wrench and a few hand tools.

John
That’s interesting about the National guard thing. A day of that would probably make me fill like doing nothing for a month.
And building a gun sounds interesting too. As much as I like messing with stuff that could be something that could work for me.

In reality a guard weekend isn’t all that bad. Maybe get out and wander the woods, maybe fire a few blanks in a mock ambush, ride around in a military truck, eat a few MRE’s. It’s not really that hard.

The AR15 is not hard. Only thing that is hard is figuring out what you want it to look like since there are so many different parts. I elected to make mine look more like a traditional M-4. Given time I’ll have my red dot optics and 3x magnifier. But for now I’ll just put whatever scope I have on it just to get it hitting a target.

Here is a formula that will give you an (estimate) of the height of a object if you know the distance and using one mil dot to the next. And again this is at 10 power magnification on the scope.

Yards that your object is at, times how many mil dots the object takes up (example, you can break the mil dot down to 10 places—- like 1.5 for how much the object takes up the mil dot), divided by 27.7 and that will equal how tall the object is.

Here it goes.
Object is is 50 yards away (determined by estimating how far away by range finder or parallax of scope)

multiply by how many mil dots high (1.5 in this case)

divided by 27.7 ( which comes from figuring out the mil dot degrees of a circle)

J-F
Yep that’s it.
And I believe people do like the older songs.
I like all different kinds of music. My Dads hobby was making Italian guitars.

Saturday was usually always Pop BBQ-ing (me and my brother always called him Pop) and him playing his Italian music.
I try to still do this with my girls to this day. I can play the guitar but not good. Not like Pop use to. Play some rock and some Italian stuff but just not good at it.

But we listen to music, BBQ and shoot guns instead. When Pop was alive he would shoot air guns with us. Said those d-mn center-fires just kicked to much for him anymore. So that was always fun seeing him shoot the air guns. I think I saw him flinch when he shot my Disco when I got the first one.
I laughed at him. He never ever smiled but he did then.

It’s late Friday evening and the Roanoke show has completed its first day. I went to the show only looking for a specific angle fitting for my talon. The selection of air rifles was incredible. I found 4 items I wanted to buy. Suffice to say, I didn’t bring enough money but I still made up for a particularly lousey week at work. As Lou Costello used to say, “I’m a bad boy” but I feel much better.

OK, OK. Wanted to peak everyone’s curiosity. Oh, Edith, snapped a photo of a 57 T-Bird that was on Rt. 78 in New Jersey on my drive home. I’ll send you a photo just so you can be envious. The driver had the top down.

Now, as for what I was lusting after, there were two LP-53’s, the James Bond gun Sean Connery used in the iconic photo, that I wanted. Larry Hannish(?) had one in the box complete as originally sold but it was a bit much for me. He also had a Polish copy for much less, as BB pointed out. I told him it wasn’t the same to which BB replied it was the Polish James Bond’s gun, Janos Bondinsky”. Larry also was displaying a Wembly Tracker but made for the Barnett Crossbow company who had wanted to get into air rifles. It’s a .177 side cocking spring piston rifle – a carbine. I always wanted a Wembly or Wobbly for my collection. Dave Freeborn had a brand, spanking new old stock, still in the box, Barnett/Wembly Tracker for a lot more money. It still had the darn shrinkwrap over it! But he also had an older Walther CO2 Lever Action Winchester, also with the box. Finally, Mike Driscoll had a Haenel 311 10M target rifle with all the factory issued accessories for sale. A tough choice, I got to tell you. So what did I get? The Wobbly and the Walther and I don’t particularly like CO2 rifles as I think they’re too limited in scope but it was just too good looking to pass up. As for pricing, perhaps the Wobbly was a little high but the Winchester came with a very fair price.

No, I did not at the Barnett. If I had, I would have opened it there and then. It was hard to walk away from. It was even harder to walk away from that FWB 601 with the walnut stock. $550!!! But from the moment I saw that BSA, I knew that had to hang on my wall.

TT
That’s cool. And I was never in the military. So what does EW and ECM stand for.
I like planes but cant place what the RF-4C looks like. What was that plane used for?

And I do remember him saying he worked on U2’s in a different country. I may be wrong but pretty sure that’s what he said. And he said he was never stationed on a boat/air-craft carrier. Always stationed at a base. That was a while back and haven’t talked to him after he moved.

It was a comment about a wide angle Fresnel that some might find useful with some types of vehicles. I used to see a lot of them in the back windows of motor homes. Looks like a bubble from behind.
Got mine from NAPA.

Couldn’t reply above……no button…..I never sleep good anyway with the back pain & spasms.I was up an hour and a half before the sun this morning.Apreciate the heads up though.Nice plane you used to buzz around in.34K lbs is a lotta thrust…..and 1,384mph is REALLY moving! So that’s what high speed photography is all about.

Interesting TT……after I read up on your Phantom II I took a little siesta,when I woke up my laptop was froze up solid! Had to crash it & reboot it.I guess Uncle Sam is reading my emails now fer sure! LOL…..oh well,I’m sure they’ll be bored.

One of the cameras must have had film a foot wide, and that made the door panel it was mounted on VERY heavy. We had one (#155 ?) at Kadena that would do an honest mach 2. One of the pilots could outfly the F -15s.

I was also at Udorn when Capt. Ritchie made first Nam ace (5 kills). F4-D. While Ritchie was in the states and partying it up, his back seater scored #5 and #6. That D model sat on the alert line the rest of the time I was there. 5 red stars painted on the left intake.

We had one RF that had a red star . There was a story behind that. The toad in the mig got a bit too intent on knocking him down, and ate a centerline fuel tank.

TT
I don’t know why it didn’t compute in the ole brain that you were talking about the Phantom.
Plus to many silver bullets the night before if you know what I mean.

My wife’s oldest brother was a F4 mechanic in the service. I will try to talk to him tomorrow and find out what years and where he served.
And now that you said recon and Electronic warfare it was probably a plane made later in the years.

Did you work on the electronics of the plane or the mechanics of the plane/hydraulics/engines?
They weren’t fly by wire yet were they?

Probably one of the coolest planes I like is the A-10 Warthogs. They are still old school with the cable operated flying surfaces.

We use to make the 30 mm rounds for them at work. The blue TP(Target practice round), the orange, yellow, red HEI(High energy incinerator round) and the black AP(Armor piercing round) also the 25 mm rounds that were similar. All except the Armor piercing rounds were tracer rounds. We didn’t make the casings or load them we just made the Projectiles.

Made alot of stuff for Martin Marietta, Mortan Niacol. Made the igniter housings for the laser guided missiles. Sliders for land mines and plug bases which was the primer cavities for the M430 grenades and also the green explosive round and the blue 918 target practice round.

Made the jet engine changing dolly’s for the F-15 and 18’s. Also the air craft carrier plane dolly’s and jacks. And the bomb lifts for the fighter jets.

Haven’t been in the military but made alot of stuff for the military through out time.

If anybody has used any of the above and it didn’t work as expected don’t yell at me.

That was one of the things that has bothered me through out the years. We would see things in the design and want to get the prints and procedures changed to fix the problem and it was like pulling teeth or worse. It would take a long time to get the changes made. And most of the time they wouldn’t.

One time they were having problems with the copper sealing band getting pulled off on the M430 grenades when they fired them. All I can say it took a while for them to change the stamping design.

Well, I understand the parallax business better than optical sighting of the scopes, but that’s not saying much. The business about moving your head side to side makes sense. I can’t say that I’ve ever understood adjustable objective, except that when adjusted properly for distance, it looked sharper. It seemed to me to work very similar to the focus knob. But now that adjustable objective is explained, I can’t say that I make much sense of it. What does adjusting for different distances have to do with one’s head moving at right angles to the scope axis? On another note, I’ve heard it said that red dot sights have no parallax problem. This sounds to me like an overstatement. I suspect that they are less susceptible to parallax (they’re also less accurate) but there must be some point when it kicks in.

Just back from another range day. I had a nice sampling of all of my pistols. Let me advise you all never to get McNeet’s ammo which I had in .38 special +P. The stuff ejected a huge dirty cloud of smoke with each round like a blackpowder gun. No wonder this stuff was available during the ammo shortage. People didn’t want it anymore than they wanted the Nosler ammo at $2 per round. My SW 686 was coated with grime. I hope this doesn’t mean I need to do some detailed disassembly to clean it because that’s not going to happen. In spite of this, I can say that the SW 686 is now my favorite pistol to shoot. The big surprise was the Remington .357 magnum. It was just deadly accurate. I believe I must have been shooting a low-powered magnum load. A shot at a time, I felt truly world-class where I knew exactly when my trigger was going to break. It was the Jaws of the Subconscious. Chomp. CowBoyStar Dad, I don’t know how you are so accurate with the .22 WMR. I was all over the place with that ammo with my Ruger Single Six. The accuracy did not begin to compare with the cylinder with the .22 LR.

There was the usual assortment of range characters. One guy looked serious indeed with his dark glasses, ball cap, and leathery expressionless face. He’s like guys you read about in Stephen Hunter novels who, if his eyes had been visible behind his dark glasses, would no doubt have had the dead expressionless look of the trained killer. He had the hardware to match–a couple of polymer handguns with laser units attached. So his first move was to rest the handgun at the 7 yard line and aim very carefully with his laser dot. Considering that he must have been hypoxic after 20 seconds of holding his breath, he was reasonably steady. With all this, his groups were fairly tight. Then, he took out a pair binoculars and studied them at 7 yards. Finally, he was ready for action and stood up and his shots did a fair imitation of a shotgun.

But all is fair at the shooting range since I gathered a fair share of amusement myself. Thanks to Slinging Lead and his idea, I have made a breakthrough, tying on the archery gear with paracord. I looked like a Sherpa, or a moving antheap, or maybe a serious sinner doing penance as I struggled back and forth to the various stations. I’ve been intending to get a camera, and I must get a picture of this.

At the archery range, I discovered that Wulfraed must be built like a gorilla. I tried the method of lowering and drawing the bow at the same time which he used for a 70lb. bow and could not make it work. I just came close to straining a muscle in my shoulder. I continue to rely on my secret method that seeks to recover the lost techniques of the English longbowmen.

Then it was time to face the rifles. One of my goals was to try serious benchresting with the Anschutz with the second back under the buttstock. No more Mr. Nice Guy. I’ve never been able to squeeze the leather rear bag that I bought from PA. It’s as hard as a rock. But I use one of those neck pillows that people wear on airiplanes on top of the rear bag, and I’m able to adjust that by squeezing fairly well. The Anschutz responded with literal one hole 5 shots groups at 50 years. After three of these groups, I stopped since there was no point in continuing. It’s said that serious benchresting removes the shooter completely and is a pure test of the gun, and that was the case here. It was gratifying too since I’m getting a certain amount of notoriety for having such a fancy rifle. It’s nice to have the groups to show for it. I know they’re watching my targets through their telescopes!

When I injected myself into the equation with standing, alas, it showed, I was hoping to preserve my accomplishment of last time by holding the black in standing, but I would be lying if I said that I did. The idea is that the Anschutz would crown all my airgun practice which is mostly standing with rifles, but it was not to be. I knew what I was doing wrong–sniping and not following through–but I just didn’t have it. The other goal was to testfire my Mauser 98K. Is there anything like starting the trigger squeeze for your first shot on a new gun, especially such a cool one as this? The mind boggles to think where and when it was last fired and for what purpose. It’s like the whole world is standing still for that discharge. I had another concern. I know that adjusting windage on the front sight of these rifles is a real pain, and I saw that mine was drifted considerably out to the left. My mind was already filled with plans for how to adjust the windage. I didn’t give myself much of a chance of removing the sight hood. So, I was going to take it down to the local gunsmith. And I was already figuring the mathematics of exactly how far and in what direction he would have to drift the sight to compensate…. Boom went the shot. And when I looked in the scope, there was a pinwheel as perfect as it could possibly be. The rest of the five shots at 50 yards covered about 2 inches. Good considering that I had no aimpoint on the target, except gridlines that I couldn’t see. I was so pessimistic about the sight alignment for the rifle that I opted for essentially a blank piece of paper so that I could track down the shots rather than a definitive bull that might obscure them.

I had read somewhere that the Mauser for all its power is not loud. It’s more of a deep boom. With all that’s said about the Mauser’s recoil, I didn’t take that seriously. But in fact that’s what it was like. And even the fabled recoil did not bother me that much. What I noticed more is that between the relatively short length of pull and my enormously bulky earmuffs–the biggest I could buy at Midway, I had trouble getting a good hold. Would now be the time for that incomparable comment on an internet gun review: Them Germans sure must of had short arms. I really wasn’t hoping for much with my to two clips worth of standing shots. The gun did wrench sideways in a way I had not experienced before. But otherwise, the carbine proportions felt good, and the group was surprisingly tight and centered. I felt better about that than I did with the Anschutz.

While all this was going on, range rudeness was reaching new heights. Since the range was relatively empty, I set up a target in my lane and in the lane next to me. After awhile, along comes along this old fellow with a flintlock and starts setting up his gear at the point next to me where I had my second target. When he aimed his rifle at my target, I told him it was mine. Without missing a beat, he said, “I beg your pardon. I’m not loaded.” Then why are you setting up where my target is I thought to myself. Sure enough when the range was cleared and we went down to the frames, there he was in my lane with his new target. I wasn’t sure what to do. I figured he was maybe some old coot who had come out of the hills with his flintlock and wasn’t all there. Also, it seemed like anything I said (Why did you set up in my lane?) would make him look so silly it would be insulting. Besides, I figured the range was not the place for altercations, and I also suspected that he was one of he good old boys who form a sort of fraternity out there with most of the range officers. Maybe that made him feel entitled. Anyway, I just said that I would move my target to the lane on the other said. He didn’t say anything but just acted as if that was right and proper.

Okay, Slinging Lead. How does one solve this range problem? Or does one suffer an infestation of old coots like one of the plagues of the Bible?

At the archery range, I discovered that Wulfraed must be built like a gorilla. I tried the method of lowering and drawing the bow at the same time which he used for a 70lb. bow and could not make it work. I just came close to straining a muscle in my shoulder. I continue to rely on my secret method that seeks to recover the lost techniques of the English longbowmen.

For much of my life, I was the “90lb weakling” in the body building adverts found in the back of comic books (next to the “Sea Monkeys” advert). I’m now an out-of-shape, overweight 180lbs.

John
Is the guard weekend something that happens every weekend? Or is that at certain times of the year?
That would be cool if they would let kids under 18 do that.

Both of my daughters are like survivalist. They just naturally are always telling me something about nature and how it could be used if needed. (they are always teaching me and I haven’t really taught them alot about that so it kind of surprises me when they talk about it)
I think they would have a fun time with the national guard thing if it could happen.

FrankBpc
Just letting you know. I did what you were talking about above with my binoculars.
I had to use my glasses (tryed with out and couldn’t get as sharp of image).

But yep once I focused them the way you said. It worked out great. Still not as powerful from what I remember with my Uncles binoculars that I looked through when I was a kid. His must of been more magnification than mine Im guessing.

But yes I do have that 3D effect now and the picture is sharp also. Thanks